Written By komlim puldel on Minggu, 10 Agustus 2014 | 20.01

IT was billed as the Arriverderci to Ale show, but surely not even Del Piero expected to go out like this.

On the night the Italian said his goodbyes to Australian football, the All-Stars proved there are plenty of heroes left in the A-League.

Simone Pepe grabs the winner for Juventus.Source: News Corp Australia

With 55,364 fans cheering them on, the blue-collar endeavours from the A-League XI left the Italian champions grateful for a win they scarcely deserved.

It's true that moral victories count for nothing, but the All-Stars left the pitch knowing they had far more reason to be proud.

Without Paul Pogba punishing a slack header from Michael Thwaite with a superlative 20m volley moments from the end to level the scores, and Simone Pepe's winner in injury time, Josep Gombau's side could have been celebrating a real victory.

Twice the All-Stars led against a strangely off colour Juve side, and they were a cut above the performance of a year ago, comfortable in possession and so much the better for an extra few weeks of pre-season training.

Beforehand there was no mistaking the theme for the night - the Del Piero Farewell began with a guard of honour from both teams for the man and his children.

Perhaps uniquely the sentiment was as warm from the visitors as from Del Piero's more contemporary colleagues, with the Juventus side still heavy with the memories of their former teammate.

If anything it was the current tenants of the Juve shirt who looked awkward and cumbersome at times. Three weeks from the start of Serie A there was a surprising lack of cohesion and they were pressing as badly as a trainee dry cleaner.

The opening goal for the All-Stars was a work of elegance, the ball transferred from Berisha on the left inside to Broich, whose instinctive pass met Marcelo Carrusca's fashionably late run into the box.

For a second it seemed as if the Argentine had overplayed his hand, but he calmly side-footed a shot past Buffon and into the bottom corner.

Things could easily have got worse for Juve just past the half hour, as Bernie Ibini stole the ball from Patrice Evra and crossed to Berisha, whose instinctive shot was tipped away by Buffon.

Finally there was a response from the Italian champions, Fernando Llorente's astute through ball sending Carloz Tevez clear for a shot that struck the post and went wide.

But that really was the only serious threat to Eugene Galekovic's goal in the opening 45 minutes.

As a colleague said at halftime of the Socceroos' match with the Netherlands in Brazil, albeit on a different scale - this shouldn't have been happening.

Marcelo Carrusca got the home side off to a great start.Source: Getty Images

It couldn't last of course, not with Juventus clearly stung by the words said at halftime. A faintly random halftime fireworks display possibly hid similar pyrotechnics from the away dressing room, and within seconds of the restart they were on the hunt.

Tevez twisted and turned like Houdini on the right and hung up a cross that somehow was not converted.

Then Andrea Pirlo, distinctive only for his beard until then, laid a clever ball into the path of Evra, and his inviting cross was met by a thumping header from Llorente just five metres out to level the scores.

Both teams applauded Del Piero from the field, his adventure in Australian football at an end as the substitutions began, but others were determined to prove that the future post-ADP is a bright one.

Juve were undone again by sloppiness in defence, Kwadwo Asamoah's poor clearance intercepted by Gui Finkler. As the ball bounced sideways, Tomi Juric - with his first touch as a substitute - rifled home from 15m.

As the clock ticked down, Gombau began to dream - until two moments of quality cut his team down at the knees.